The Xiaomi Mi8 weighs 175 grams and measures 154,9mm x 74.8 mm x7.6 mm and packs a 6.21 inch Samsung AMOLED screen in an 18.7:9 screen ratio. The phone is as big as the 5.5-inch phones from the past so roughly the size of a phablet.
It comes in four colors - white, gold, blue and black and, of course, it has a notch. The MIUI 10 user interface can help you hide the notch if you are really bothered by it.
China likes Antutu and, according to Lie Jun, the Xiaomi CEO, the new phone beats all competitors including Galaxy S9, Mix 2S, Sony XZ2, HTC U12+ and a few others scoring 301.472. This must be the highest score that we’ve seen so far on an Android phone.
The second, very important point, is that according to a photo DxOMark benchmark the Mi8 scores 105 - outscoring the Mi MIX2 and even the iPhone X.
The AI camera has 12 megapixel support and an IMX 363 sensor with f 1.8 and 1.4 micrometer pixel and 2PD as well as a 12 megapixel camera powered by Samsung’s S5K3M3 Cmos with f2.4 and 1.0 micrometer pixel size.
The overall DXOMark score by mi8 increased to 99 while iPhone X and MIX 2S score 97.
The front face selfie camera has 20 megapixel with f/2.0 aperture and with the help of AI can produce some stunning portrait pictures.
The USB Type C and two speakers are the only connectors at the bottom of the device and there's no 3.5mm headphone jack. The Mi8 supports 3D face unlocking and Animoji that should help millennials communicate without the need to talk. If you ask Apple, animated poop can do the talking for you.
Xiaomi also highlighted the fact that the phone has a unique and very precise GPS using both L1 and L5 frequencies, giving it much higher precision compared to the S9 and iPhone X.
Explorer edition is the only Mi8 that supports an in display fingerprint reader and comes with transparent back. The rest of the hardware looks the same and the Explorer edition will come in an 8GB/28 GB storage version and sell for 3,799 RMB or close to $600/€500.
The standard version of the Mi8 with the rear fingerprint reader will start at 2,699 RMB /€360 or $421 for the 6GB RAM/64GB storage version. The 6GB RAM/128 GB storage will sell for 2,999 RMB /€400 or $468, while the most expensive 6GB/256 GB version is 3,299 RMB, €440 or $515.
The price is really attractive for this market segment but we will have to wait and see the official European prices when they get announced as the phone will go on sale in Spain, Italy, and France rather soon.
There is a more price attractive version called Mi8 SE and we will write that one up in a separate article.
